Page Count

[eliseu gouveia]

Heya there,

Some of you may or may not know, but I´ve been working on my comic LITTLE PEOPLE (http://pwp.netcabo.pt/0681069201/300thumb.jpg) for AGES now (sorry for the plug).

It´s an 8-part superhero mini-series of 24 pages each.

I´m in the final stages of coloring and from this angle I now have the oportunity to look back and see the entire series in perspective and my veredict is.... D´Oh! It´s too CRAMMED with information and subplots.

It´s a problem that I fought with since the very beginning; I didn´t want to add a chapter (a 9-part mini-series seemed too odd) and didn´t want to climb above the 24 page mark, so I had hopes that through the artwork I could solve a few of those issues.
Looking back now I can clearly see that it didn´t work: I have no other option, I need to dilute this solution.
Adding a chapter at this point is out of the question since it would break the pacing; I need to up the page count of each of those chapters.

I know the 22, 24 and 32 (pricey) formats are standards in the industry, but I´d like your thoughts on the pros and cons of a 8-part mini-series of 26-28 paged chapters.

Has it ever been done before? Would it make the book WAY too pricey? Would a book this size turn off readers? Would a publisher cringe at the mere thought? Why should I go for it? Why shouldn´t I go for it?

Help.

[Mike]

Well, I thought that it was like 32 printed pages, but only like 22 pages of story and the rest ads or something... That might be the only thing. If it's short, they can cram some more ads in and get some money back off of that. If it's long, they lose ad space and the book costs more to print.

I just flipped through Marvel's Thor: Vikings #1 and it's 30 pages with 22 pages of art.

MVCreations/CGE's Dragon's Lair #1 is 32 pages with 22 pages of art (all 10 ad pages are in the back, too!).

DC's Superman/Batman #1 is 32 pages with 22 pages of art and the 10 ad pages spread out in the book.

Looks like for most publishers, 22 pages of art is the standard. Are you looking to sell it to a publisher or print it yourself? I think most publishers might balk at the idea of losing ad space or having to sell a book that may have a higher cover price, but I'd buy it because the art's so damn good.

[eliseu gouveia]

Hey, thanks, Mike :) .

I´m planning on having this handled by a publisher, so I have to consider seriously the cost bit.
Right now I have 8 chapters of 24 pages each, but my plan is to up that by 4, which means that the publisher would be stuck with only 4 pages for publicity.

[Inkthinker]

Remember that a printed book, staple-bound, MUST have a page count in mulitples of 8. It has to do with every sheet that comes of the press having 8 pages, 4 on each side. So regardless of how ever many pages your story is, the final book needs to be 8/16/24/36/48 pages long, and that includes the covers.

For instance, Blade of the Immortal issue no. 80 (picked because it was the first thing I could reach) has a total page count of 36 actual pages. Of those pages, there is only 26 pages related directly to the story (24 story pages plus cover and the inside cover with story-related info and credits), 2 pages of letters, an editorial page and 7 pages of adverts.

[eliseu gouveia]

Thank you, Inkthinker, you´ve been most helpfull :) .

After some considerations, Ive decided to go for 26-page chapters.
What´s interesting is that only a couple of the middle ones (4,5,6) are giving me problems mainly because that´s where most of the character development takes place and I have to tackle all the inter relations between everyone.